World leading or internationally excellent rated researchWorld leading or internationally excellent rated research

The School of Environmental Sciences is one of the longest established and largest interdisciplinary departments of environmental sciences in Europe. It is very widely known throughout the world for its uniquely holistic and interdisciplinary approach to research, integrating physical, chemical, biological, and social sciences to understand better the interaction between natural and human environmental systems.

Research in the school addresses three overarching themes, namely: climate, ocean and atmospheric interactions; the governance of resources and sustainability; and geosciences and natural hazards. It houses international centres of excellence such as the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences; the Climatic Research Unit (CRU); the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change; and CSERGE – the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment.

The outcomes of these interdisciplinary collaborations between themes and centres are widely recognised in the international community. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework exercise conducted by the UK government, 35% of research was judged to be world leading (4*), while 53% was rated as internationally excellent (3*). The School was 3rd placed in the UK in terms of its volume of world-leading research and 5th placed in terms of research ‘power’. The policy and societal Impact generated by its research was ranked 1st in the UK.

In the 2015 QS World University Rankings, UEA was ranked =28th position in the world in environmental sciences. Its academic ‘citations’ score (i.e. how many times research findings are referenced in the global academic community) was 99.8, bettered only by Princeton (by 0.2 of a point).